Thanks for checking out the Adventure Zines release for Kids on Bikes 2E!
This PDF includes 12 adventures for Kids on Bikes 2E written by special guest authors. With adventures involving concepts ranging from classic video arcades to the latest AI, there's a story waiting in here for everyone.
Ryan Omega
Luis Carazo
Kristin Devine & Diana Loraine
Tanya DePass
CJ McCullough
Aabria Iyengar & Saige Ryan
Anjali Bhimani
Malika Lim Eubank
Zac Lim Eubank
Lauren E. Mitchell
Jasmine Bhullar
Banana Chan
Game Design: Jon Gilmour and Doug Levandowski
Adventure Zines Editor: Jonaya Kemper
Hey everyone! I just posted a new short story on Ko-Fi as a thank you for everyone who has supported me over recent times and longer ago. It's open to all supporters of any amount.
'First Steps' was written as a contribution to Twelfth Planet Press's Mother of Invention, and follows the story of Divi, an artificial intelligence (a real one, not predictive text in a fancy interface) and their perception of who constitutes their family, particularly their mother. I think it is a little bit sad but also hopeful. It's set on a spaceship and there's a lot of queerness among the crew and lots of found family talk beyond Divi's personal experience.
If you've already kindly donated to my Ko-Fi and were logged in, you can access the story at this link. If you're interested but haven't donated, this is a name your own price donation deal. And if you donated to me directly through PayPal or not logged in on Ko-Fi and would like to read it, please get in touch so I can send you a copy of the story directly (I don't expect anyone to sign up for Ko-Fi just to be able to read it!).
COVID is not over. But neither is comedy. ~~
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is one of the highlights of my year. B
A heap of my description vanished on the Redbubble preview, so I wanted to put it somewhere safe.
COVID is not over. But neither is comedy.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is one of the highlights of my year. Before COVID, and Melbourne's shutdown, I would go almost every night after work and see dozens of shows. When COVID came onto the scene in 2020, I was one of the people who asked MICF if we would be able to opt to give the costs of our tickets to the artists instead of receiving refunds.
I ventured out between lockdowns when it was held in a much more subdued fashion to see some of my die-hard favourites. In 2023, I planned my schedule to ensure plenty of time outside between shows, away from crowds, and masked at every show. I was cautious as hell, as were friends who I attended with, and yet I had an absolute blast—and I didn't get sick.
COVID is not over. But neither is comedy. I designed this work to showcase that feeling of joy I still get from attending live comedy, while also remaining mindful of the risks, in hopes that other people will enjoy this design as well.
I purchased the original stock art of the laughing people from iStock (credit: jesadaphorn) and added the masks myself in Photoshop, also recolouring some of the people to reflect the diversity in MICF performers and audiences.
I don't know what, if any, profit I will make from this, but I will donate 10% of any profit I earn to Oxfam, selected due to its ties to MICF and its COVID-19 response.
Thank you for reading and for considering this design. It came from the heart.
Book Review: Not Here to Make Friends, Jodi McAlister
(Until I figure out how to do a blog on my website, they're going here.)
I've followed Jodi's fiction career since Valentine, which was in a very different genre—YA fantasy, my beloved—but the quality of her writing and the fact that the Marry Me, Juliet series was billed as a rom-com drama had me tear through the first two books in the series and pre-order Not Here to Make Friends the moment I was able to do so.
I was not disappointed. While each of the prior books were also wild rollercoasters, Not Here to Make Friends took off its seat belt, snapped off the security rail, and stood up in its seat screaming all the way. Everything from the characters' voices to the plot's pacing to the way all the little hints the audience had had from the previous books were not only explained but revealed to be much bigger than at first glance made Not Here to Make Friends a real page-turner. At the same time I wanted to savour it, because—to the best of my knowledge—this is the last installment in the MMJ series. (I'm happy to be wrong, Jodi!) So instead of devouring it in one sitting, I stretched it out over two bubble baths, one train ride, and enjoyed the last few pages of it just now with the rain on the roof (Melbourne is doing summer wrong) and one of the cats trying to help me to read by sitting on the book.
Fans of The Bachelor and similar shows will undoubtedly enjoy this show-in-book-form, because I enjoyed it immensely and my reality TV taste is more on the Masterchef and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! axis. It's a lot easier to deal with the conniving scumbagginess when it's on the page rather than on the screen, and yet the characters are so well-written you could swear they're real people. Fucking Greg! Never have I ever more wanted to slap a fictional character!
Now someone get Jodi that Bachelor consultant role!
I put two of my erotic stories up on itch for pay what you want. They've both been published before through @lessthanthreepress, which has sadly closed its doors, so they have been edited and polished and so forth.
My itch profile is here.
The two stories are:
The Triad Trial
New FFM throuple trying to figure themselves out with the 'help' of a meddling succubus. FFM. HEA. 42,500 words.
Pictures and Memories
33-year-old artist meets 18-year-old troublemaker while traveling. Love affair ensues. M/M, HEA. 10,500 words.
2015: The Triad Trial, Less Than Three Press. Currently out of print.
2016:
‘Pictures and Memories’, Less Than Three Press. Currently out of print.
‘Tea Party’ in Defying Doomsday, Twelfth Planet Press
First edition of The Fear Collectors, self-published via CreateSpace and Kindle Direct for final project of Master of Communication. Currently out of print.
2018: ‘Island, Ocean’ in Capricious Magazine: The Gender Diverse Pronouns Issue
2019: Revised edition of The Fear Collectors, Shooting Star Press
Australian Science Fiction Foundation Amateur Short Story Competition 2014: won with ‘Latency’ (published in Continuum X conbook)
Bisexual Book Awards 2015, Erotic Fiction category: finalist with The Triad Trial, Less Than Three Press.
Ditmar Awards 2017, Best Collected Work category: co-winner with ‘Tea Party’ in Defying Doomsday, eds Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, Twelfth Planet Press.
The Norma K Hemming Award 2018: nominated with ‘Tea Party’ in Defying Doomsday, eds Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, Twelfth Planet Press.
Mitchell reminds us that anxiety and depression are also disabilities, and create complications for those trying to survive the apocalypse. [Their] story trades the general pessimism of this genre for bright optimism and reminds us that, though humans might die, humanity will survive.
The James Tiptree, Jr. Award 2018: Honor List: ‘Island, Ocean’ in Capricious Magazine: The Gender Diverse Pronouns Issue, ed. A. C. Buchanan
